According to the “Daily Times”, although the Malawi government has set a minimum cotton purchase price of 52 kwacha/kg (about 0.35 US dollars) in 2010, it is only one month away from the start of the cotton purchase season. At a critical moment, the government has been unable to announce preliminary estimates of cotton production in 2010, causing the market to worry that Malawi’s cotton production in 2010 may be reduced.
Like tobacco and coffee, cotton is also an important cash crop in Malawi. However, affected by the low cotton purchase price in 2009, the cotton planting area in Malawi may have declined. In traditional cotton-producing areas such as Neno and Chikwawa, much of the land originally used to grow cotton is now planted with corn and other food crops.
In 2009, the Malawi government set the minimum purchase price of cotton at 65 Kwacha/kg (USD 0.43), but the actual lowest transaction price was as low as 25 Kwacha/kg (USD 0.16). Even so, Malawian cotton farmers still hope that the actual transaction price in 2010 will be higher than the minimum price set by the government. They believe that the ideal purchase price should be maintained at 80-110 kwacha/kg (0.54-0.73 US dollars).
